M A D I H A Z A H R A H C H O K S I
I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. I recently earned my Ph.D. in Computing and Information Science from Cornell Tech, where I was advised by Helen Nissenbaum and James Grimmelmann.
My research explores how people and institutions govern AI technologies. Specifically, the governance infrastructures that shape how AI is developed and adopted, with a focus on privacy and intellectual property.
My work combines qualitative, computational, and legal methods. To date, it has informed the rollout and integration of new privacy features at Meta and WhatsApp, has been published in premier venues including ACM CHI, CSCW, and FAccT, and has been recognized through collaborations with numerous organizations including Microsoft Research, Google, and Creative Commons.
N E W S
Sept 21, 2026: Invited panel speaker at OPEN @ UNGA 81: A Conversation on Collaboration.
July/August 2026: Teaching “Interacting with AI: Understanding the Relationship Between AI and Humans” in the Cornell Tech Summer Innovation Intensives.
May 2026: Poster Presentation at NYC Privacy Day: “Reinforcing privacy reasoning in LLMs via normative simulacra from fiction.” 🏆 Best Poster Award
January 2026: Research paper with the TAIX team at MSR accepted to CHI 2026.
December 2025: Invited to participate in the Contextual Agentic Privacy and Security Workshop at Google HQ NYC.
November 2025: New Facebook Nickname Policy informed by my work on group privacy: Facebook takes on Reddit with launch of nicknames for Facebook Groups.
August 2025: Press Coverage for Privacy of Groups in Dense Street Imagery: This Company Turns Dashcams into ‘Virtual CCTV Cameras.’ Then Hackers Got In, and The Truth About Burning Waymos!
S E L E C T E D P U B L I C A T I O N S
Matt Franchi, Madiha Z. Choksi, Hal Triedman, Helen Nissenbaum. “Reinforcing privacy reasoning in LLMs via normative simulacra from fiction.” (Forthcoming, COLM 2026)
Madiha Zahrah Choksi, Ilan Mandel, Sebastian Benthall. “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Open Models.” FAccT 2025.
Matt Franchi, Hauke Sandhaus, Madiha Zahrah Choksi, Severin Engelmann, Wendy Ju, Helen Nissenbaum. “Privacy of Groups in Dense Street Imagery.” FAccT 2025.
Madiha Z. Choksi, Ilan Mandel, David Widder, Yan Shvartzshnaider. “The Emerging Artifacts of Centralized Open-Code.” FAccT 2024.
Madiha Z. Choksi, Ero Balsa, Frauke Kreuter, Helen Nissenbaum. “Privacy for Groups Online: Context Matters.” CSCW 2024.
Madiha Z. Choksi and James Grimmelmann. “How Licenses Learn.” Lewis & Clark Law Review, June 2024.
Madiha Z. Choksi, Marianne Aubin Le Quéré, Travis Lloyd, Ruojia Tao, James Grimmelmann, Mor Naaman. “Under the (Neighbor)hood: Hyperlocal Surveillance on Nextdoor.” CHI 2024.
🏆 Communication and Technology Top Paper Award at ICA 2024
C O N T A C T
mc2376 [at] cornell [dot] edu | m [dot] choksi [at] columbia [dot] edu